Seaweed suspected in French death

French investigators are examining whether a lorry driver has become the first victim of a toxic seaweed that is clogging parts of the Brittany coast.

The driver died in July after carrying three truckloads of sea lettuce away from the beaches where it has been decaying, releasing poisonous gas.

His death was originally recorded as a heart attack but prosecutors want to know if it was linked to the seaweed.

France’s PM warned of the health risk while visiting the beaches last month.

Francois Fillon announced that the government would pay for cleaning up the beaches polluted by the sea lettuce, ulva lactuca.

Locals had raised the alarm after a horse, being ridden over the sands, collapsed and died. Its rider fell unconscious and had to be dragged off the algae-coated beach.

By then, the lorry driver had already died.

The 48-year-old driver had been working without a mask or gloves and died at the wheel of his vehicle when it crashed into a wall, reports Tim Finan in Brittany for the BBC.

The man had been part of the annual operation to remove 2,000 tonnes of rotting sea lettuce from the beaches at Binic.

His family have so far refused to allow an autopsy to establish the exact cause of his death, but on Monday the local prosecutor ordered a preliminary investigation.

Farming blamed

Christian Urvoy, the mayor of Binic, said: “‘We want to know if in future we should take precautions to safeguard workers who collect or transport seaweed.”

A spokesman for the local authorities has strongly denied they were aware of the death when Mr Fillon visited St-Michel-en-Greve in August.

Researchers from France’s National Institute for Environmental Technology and Hazards (Ineris) have visited the same beach and found hydrogen sulphide in such concentration that it could be “deadly in few minutes”.

Sea lettuce is harmless in the sea, but as it decomposes on the beach it releases the deadly gas.

Environmentalists say decades of misuse of Brittany’s agricultural land is to blame for the explosion of algae, due to the high levels of nitrates used in fertilisers and excreted by the region’s high concentration of livestock.

Did you know ? That The Book Of Revelation tells of a runaway greenhouse effect which will kill 2 billion people and change the world as we know it?This runaway greenhouse effect was revealed by Jesus Christ and consists of 14 catastrophic climate events, due to start in 2018, which we have called The Global Meltdown Domino Effect and is now revealed for the first time in 2,000 years.Please download your free copy by clicking on the image to the right.Please note: If you are using Internet Explorer you will need to right click the picture and select save target as...

Sir Isaac Newton

About the time of the end, a body of men will be raised up who will turn their attention to the Prophecies, and insist upon their literal interpretation, in the midst of much clamor and opposition.

Isaiah Chapter 30 Verses 20 – 21

Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, This is THE WAY; walk in it.